Opening some research lines in order to guide students and scholars is the aim of this book by Henri-Xavier Arquillière published by the Universidad of Granada under the title: The political augustinism, an essay on the formation of the political theories in the Middle Ages. The volume, edited in collaboration with the Universitat de València, is part of the collection Biblioteca de Humanidades/Chronica Nova de Estudios Históricos, supervised by the professor of the Department of Modern and American History Juan Luís Castellano Castellano.
According to the author, this work intends to “give life to certain ideas, interrupt somehow their leaning in those spirits which are simpler than the protagonists that inspire them, and establish how those ideas transformed important institutions such as royalty. We have called this progressive (and irregular) movement the political augustinism, in the absence of a better term. We have struggled to define their formation and point out with precision certain stages”.
According to Arquillière, the life of ideas, which has nothing in common with the juxtaposed description of the philosophical or theological systems of a series of thinkers, “is a field of History which has not been studied in depth”. However, it can illustrate the foundations of medieval civilization. At the beginning, this study of political augustinism was part of our work Saint Grégoire VII, Essai sur sa conception du pouvoir pontifical. We thought that, without this preliminary research work, the person and work of the Supreme Pontiff remained partially unexplained. We have considered that we should publish it separately, as it can shed some light not only on one of the main pontifical figures of History, but also on the development of the political-religious theories of all the Middle Ages”.
State against Church
This book answers certain essential questions in order to understand the formation of the political theories in the Middle Ages, like the problem of papacy as, according to the author, the natural law of the State, previous to Church, “was based on the primitive exigencies of human nature, independent and sovereign in his ambit and appears completely unrecognizable, subsumed in ecclesiastic law”. On the other hand, this fundamental law on which old and modern States are based on is affirmed straight to the point. “Between the two aspects of papacy revealed by these essential declarations, there is a manifest a deep ditch, a hiatus, and even an apparent contradiction. Is it necessary to hurry to conclude that there is a break in continuity, this is, a real opposition between medieval and modern papacy?”
This is the problem, stripped of all its accessory questions, as it can be presented in its deepest and most precise terms. “How can we solve it or, at least, illustrate the directions of the research works that leading to its solution? I think that there are three key considerations which can shed some light on this delicate question: How was Gregory 7th induced to formulate the doctrine named after him? Was Gregory 7th the author of this doctrine or, on the opposite, he was just a link in the continuity of the chain of sovereign popes? In this case, how are interlaced, in the reality of History, the contrasted aspects of medieval and modern papacy as regards that of the State? The objective of this research work was to point out with accuracy the position held by political augustinism in the solution to this problem.”
Gregory 7th has been one of the most unknown figures of the Middle Ages. In life, it already was a sign of contradiction and raised resolute supporters and passionate adversaries. For long centuries, historians showed the same partiality, as well as the same deformation of his work and doctrine.
Reference
Prof Juan Luís Castellano Castellano
Dpt. of Modern and American History
Phone number: 958 243 658 / 958 243 661
